There was an interesting turn of events today in the world of tablets: Samsung topped Apple in tablet owner satisfaction with J.D. Power, the first time any company has done so since the iPad was launched in 2010. The asterisk, however, is that Samsung did so because its tablets are cheap.
“Samsung showed particularly strong improvement in the cost factor (25-point increase),” the firm said in a statement. “Apple ranks second scoring 833 and performs particularly well in performance and ease of operation.”
Apple scored 5 out of 5 stars for Overall Satisfaction, Performance, Ease of Use, Physical Design, and Tablet Features, as shown in the chart below. For Cost, apple scored 2 out of 5. In comparison, Samsung scored a 5, 3, 3, 5, 4, and 4 in those same categories, losing to Apple on four of categories, tying in one, and winning on the sixth, Cost.
It suggests there's a disconnect for some people: you get what you pay for.
Be that as it may, Samsung's total score beat Apple's, and it's a significant victory for Samsung, which trails far behind Apple in tablet share.
The chart below shows total scores for the top five vendors, and the scoring is pretty close for the top four. Again, as noted in the chart above, Apple beats everyone on every category except cost, despite the close total scores.
J.D. Power awards are coveted because they make for great marketing tools. Apple has often bragged about its J.D. Power awards—in March, the company sent out an email touting its 9th straight award for customer satisfaction earned by iPhone.
You can bet Samsung will splash its newest award as much as it can.